Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase

[meganbmoore]

Note:  Despite the length, all plot details are either on the back, or in the first few chapters, so I don't consider this spoilery beyond the one hidden bit.  Which is also in the first few chapters.

James Cordier is a spy for England in 1820, using his looks to seduce women suspected of being enemies of the crown. He knows that he’s expendable and

Comments

[magicnoire]

I loved this book and the reactions to it just showed how I don't understand the general romance reader community sometimes.

[meganbmoore]

You don't have a strictly black and white view of the world that says being female and having sex with anyone but your True Love is bad unless you're ashamed of it, and that mansluts are cool and hot and angsty and just need either a pristine virgin or a widow who's never been in love

[meganbmoore]

The only problem I have with the secret baby novel is how that subplot played out. Too easy. But the dialogue in it was amazing.

[keelieinblack]

I liked this book an awful lot, with a few quibbles, and when I'd finished I kept thinking, "this is what's got so many people in a tizzy?" It's so weird to come at all that discussion about this book with the mindset of fandom, where pretty much anything goes--I keep forgetting how restrictive the moralities of some romance readers are.

Their loss, I guess. I really hope the furor over this book has been enough to draw in enough new readers to offset those who were so scandalized that they'll never touch another of Chase's books.

[meganbmoore]

What got them in a tizzy is that it kicked a lot of the hypocrisy of the genre in the teeth. It's like how people read a few chapters of Wallflower and run away, because that one rips into every shoujo "he-harem saving shy girl" trope ever.

[artillie]

I was tl;dring this post really hard until I saw the phrase "noble manslut for king and country." And then I looked it up on Amazon--none of the reviewers can bring themselves to type out the word "whore." That's hilarious.

I don't read romance novels--okay, yes I do, but only every once in a while--but I'll give this one a shot. Someday. You know, when the library actually has it. All right, I have it set to put it on hold for me as soon as it comes in. But I don't read romance novels. >_>

[meganbmoore]

The best part is that he calls himself one within the first few pages. Well...whore or prostitute, I forget which. But he's very honest with himself about what he is, which most such heroes aren't.

The "Noble manslut for king and country" is a pretty popular romance novel trope (actually "noble/angsty manslut" in general, not just romances) and one that most love, and one that I kinda hate, so I loved seeing it exposed for the hypocrisy it is.

MORE SPOILERS!!!!

[estara]

Yes, that was one of the most fun parts, when he does a bit of self-inspection when coming clear to Francesca about why he was set upon her - the bits where SHE flies into an Italian rage (even though being British), and he remains calm and then remembers he's half-Italian himself and goes cursing after her until they make up.

Or later on, when she wants to pacify one of the baddies with jewelry and he gets really upset because he's also a jewel thief and can't handle her wanting to give away the jewels, and then she calls him being upset like "watching opera" and when he looks at her murderously she says "You're beautiful when you're angry" - waiting for him to lose it and he almost does and then laughs out loud.

I guess I'm disappointed because these bits are in the book too, and I wanted to like it more on the whole

Re: MORE SPOILERS!!!!

[meganbmoore]

I think the annoying bits don't bother me because I'm on a listserv with a lot of regency authors, and there've been discussions about bits that editors make you include and such, so there's a lot of things in romance novels that I look at and go "yeah, the editor made that happen before they'd let it get published.

[irysangel]

I really liked this book...except I felt it was watered down at certain points. Frex, she....

SPOILER
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didn't really sleep with the other guy. It was just set up to look like she was. And then there's the whole "Oh my benefactor is secretly my dad."
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End Spoiler. I swear to Christ, I'm going to write a book with an unabashed courtesan at some point.

Overall, it was good. Francesca was a little too reluctant for my tastes, but the manwhore was awesome.

[meganbmoore]

The dad reveal disappointed me because I'd pegged him as dad or uncle from the start. Chase was deliberately oblique about sex with the other guy. She never said she did, but I don't recall her ever saying she didn't, either.

I think, though, that all the quibbles are editorial panic buttons.

I can just imagine the sweating when she turned in the proposal.